US Imports from China 2018

The US imports $502.632 billion in goods from China.  The bulk of these purchases are electrical machinery and equipment $135.865 billion, machinery mechanical appliances $106.858 billion. These two categories account for about half of our trade deficit and they are certainly the products with the most valuable intellectual property China is stealing. What these US companies don’t understand is that China will soon stop selling to US companies and will put their own labels on these products and the US companies will be out of business.

These import costs are what US companies pay China to make their stuff, because it costs less to manufacture in China than it would if they still made this stuff themselves in the US.  The US companies just put their labels on the products, mark it up and sell it to us. 

There are also consumer products where they do the same thing.  These include: furniture and bedding $30.855 billion, toys, games and sports equipment $25.746 billion, apparel $15.347 billion, knitted apparel $16.929 billion, footwear, $17.971 billion, plastic products $15.462 billion, vehicles $13.778 billion, optical, photographic $11.359 billion, iron and steel $11,301 billion and leather goods $9.152 billion.

The other manufactured goods less than $9 billion are listed on: https://geopoliticalfutures.com/chinas-exports-to-u-s-2/

A mere 20 years ago, the US made most of these products in the US, but in 1993, NAFTA heralded the trend to off-shore all manufacturing.

Companies naively wanted to sell products to China because of their 1.4 billion population. But it didn’t work out that way and now these companies are prisoners awaiting their own execution in the prison they build for themselves.

The real bubble in the US economy is the replacement of US companies by Chinese companies. Put that in your 401k and smoke it.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader